My students are amazing. My students are silly; my students are smart, and my students want to learn more! My students are all special education students with a variety of learning, behavioral, and emotional disabilities who attend a school in a high-need community on the northwest side of Chicago.
Despite the challenges they face both inside and outside the classroom, my students all want to learn and work hard every single day.
However, my students often do not have the resources they need to be the most successful. These students already have so many factors working against them, lack of resources should not be one of them. Being in the special education classroom for part of the day actually means they have fewer resources than their typically developing peers have, as resources often go to the general education classrooms first. Therefore, students with the highest needs often have the fewest resources, especially materials that are at their level and accessible to them. My students are amazing and have made great strides despite this lack of resources, but I can only imagine the successful young men and women they will become with the resources necessary to help them achieve.
My Project
Getting students interested in reading has been a priority of mine since I first stepped foot in a classroom. If students become lifelong readers, they also become lifelong learners and thus are set up for success. With some groups of students, fostering a love of reading was easy, and they were quickly hooked. However, things felt more forced with the group of students I am currently working with. I felt like I did everything in my power to get them to love books, and yet I was still met with, "I just don't like reading" from so many students. I felt so crushed, but I was not ready to accept defeat. If students do not enjoy reading, they do not practice, and thus, progress is slow or nonexistent. Thankfully, I was able to get another Donors Choose.org project funded that included the Dog Man series, and it worked! My students are now hooked on reading! Now, they are begging me to make another project for more books, so here I am.
Finding books that students are interested in is the key to fostering lifelong readers and lifelong learners.
When students find books they love, they don't even realize they are practicing their reading skills. With your help, I will be able to continue to encourage this love in my students and help them to become strong and successful readers. And better yet, I know my students will love these books because they requested each and every one of them.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. K. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
{"pmaHash":"","schoolCity":"Chicago","showProjectRecommendations":true,"teachersOnPage":[3225982],"isTeacherViewingTheirOwnProject":false,"hideTeacherDetails":false,"schoolState":"IL","teacherPossessivePronoun":"her","PMsManager":null,"schoolGradeType":{"id":2,"name":"Elementary School"},"TeacherPMForms":{},"proposalId":4827795,"proposalMessageFormModel":null,"numActiveProjects":1,"completingDonationAmount":0,"teacherHasClassroomPhoto":true,"proposalURL":"https://www.donorschoose.org/project/begging-for-books-part-5/4827795/","verifyShowPhotos":"","eligibleToBeCopied":false,"mayHaveReplacements":false,"numStudents":15,"teacherScreenName":"Ms. K.","isEquityFocus":true,"authorIds":{"3225982":{"owner":"Ms. K.","donationSalutations":{}}},"displayedPercentFunded":1.0,"proposalsOnPage":[4827795],"proposalHash":"146530460","isApplePayMobileOnly":true,"progressBarPercentage":100.00,"pmaId":"","teacherProfilePhotoURL":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp3225982_272x272.jpg?width=136&height=136&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1457911306900","teacherHasProfilePhoto":true,"currentWorkflowStatusCode":21,"teacherChallengeId":20671695,"photosPublished":true,"queryString":"","DonorPMForm":null,"isApplePayEnabled":true,"fundedByTarget":false,"activeProject":{"completingDonationAmount":156,"proposalURL":"project/all-of-the-basics-part-2/7255077/","proposalTitle":"All of the Basics (Part 2)","proposalId":7255077},"donorIdsForImpactPhotoCheck":["NjU1MDk5Ng==","MjU5NzIxOA==","NzEyMDAwOA=="],"teacherId":3225982,"schoolCounty":"Cook","fullyFunded":true,"isStudentLed":false,"isExpired":true,"schoolStateObj":{"code":"IL","name":"Illinois"}}
